A Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) delegation led by Chief Executive Officer Zhongjing Wang held bilateral meetings with senior government officials and representatives of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on 20-26 September to discuss ways to deepen cooperation to promote sustainable cross-border connectivity infrastructure growth, in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital and on the margins of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Annual Meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The MCDF delegation consulted with a cross-section of MCDF donor countries, whose respective delegation heads included Egyptian Finance Minister Dr. Mohamed Maait and Vice Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk; Mate Loga, State Secretary for Economic Development and National Financial Services, Hungary and Andrea Boda, Head of Department, Ministry of Economic Development, Hungary; Phouthanouphet Saysombath, Deputy Finance Minister, Lao PDR; Abdulmuhsen Saad Alkhalaf, Assistant Finance Minister, Saudi Arabia; Pen Thirong, Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cambodia; and Zhijun Cheng, Director General, Department of International Economic and Financial Cooperation, Ministry of Finance, China.

MCDF also met with Brazil Deputy Finance Minister and AIIB Governor Tatiana Rosito; officials from Australia, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, and the United Kingdom; and African Development Bank Vice President Solomon Quaynor, African Finance Corporation Board Member and Executive Director Sanjeev Gupta, Asian Development Bank Vice President Chen Shixin, and World Bank Vice President Manuela Ferro.

CEO Wang thanked the meetings’ participants for their support of MCDF and briefed them on MCDF’s progress. He explained that MCDF has delivered 14 grants over the past 22 months for cross-border connectivity project preparation and capacity building in the transport, energy, and information and communications technology sectors, aimed at mobilizing USD 6.6 billion in infrastructure investment across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Antarctica, and applying IFI standards.

CEO Wang additionally described MCDF’s information-sharing activities to enhance understanding of IFI standards among New Partners,  which include bilateral and commercial financial institutions and governments. He also updated them on MCDF’s JIGSAW platform that facilitates information exchange on high-quality connectivity infrastructure in developing countries, including its newly redesigned and more user-friendly databases of connectivity project proposals seeking financing and information on IFI standards and best practices.

Senior officials and representatives highlighted their governments and IFIs’ onward priorities for cross-border connectivity development. They welcomed greater MCDF support in areas such as sustainable debt management, climate-smart connectivity, energy transition, and frontier technology, broader environmental and social safeguards, procurement, anti-corruption and transparency, special economic zones, regional integration and trade facilitation, and development impact assessment.

Right to left: Phouthanouphet Saysombath, Deputy Finance Minister, Lao PDR and Zhongjing Wang, CEO, Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF)

Abdulmuhsen Saad Alkhalaf, Assistant Finance Minister, Saudi Arabia and Zhongjing Wang, CEO, MCDF

Australia and MCDF delegations